Electrical connector elements are extensively used in various manners to connect a discrete device to a printed circuit board (PCB) or to conductor tracks disposed thereon. For example, a package is used to package a power transistor die. The package includes three parallel extending metal connector pins. On a printed circuit board, the package's connector pins are electrically connected to conductor tracks provided on the printed circuit board. These connector pins generally engage in openings or holes already present in the printed circuit board.
The connector pins can be provided as solder pins, because they are soldered to the printed circuit board. Electrical and opto-electrical modules are connected to the printed circuit board with these connector or solder pins.
The soldering of the connector pins to the printed circuit board presents a number of disadvantages. Usually, the soldering process is inconvenient and tedious, requiring high manual effort, expensive machines and high energy utilization. The conventional soldering process requires heat which may be detrimental to heat sensitive elements within the module connected to the printed circuit board. This increases the cost as high temperature materials which can withstand the heat are required. Furthermore, a printed circuit board may support many such electrical or opto-electrical modules. In case a single such module fails, due to soldered connector pins, the entire printed circuit board has to be removed for service. Additionally, the solder pins provide low tolerance to any tilting force that is applied to the connected electrical or opto-electrical modules, thereby, resulting in a fragile configuration.
Connector pins can also be pinched into openings or holes. Where the openings have a conductive wall surface connected to the conductor track, an electrical contact of the connector pin to the conductive wall surface can establish an electrical connection of the connector pin to the conductor track. However, forcing the connector pins into the respective holes comes with plenty of loss in large scale mass fabrication, since a tool has to apply a great force to ensure good contact, while, at the same time, mass manufacturing requires the process to be performed at great speed. It is therefore difficult to precisely align a connector pin with the hole that is to receive the pin. Therefore, when sinking the connector pins into corresponding holes, the pins can bend and/or refuse to enter the holes. However, if the holes are made wider so as to require less force in order to stick the connector pins into the holes, the electrical contact can be become unreliable. Also, the connector pins may not provide sufficient mechanical stability for the discrete device on the board.